ICON-3 PRACTICE BASED RESEARCH NETWORK (ICON-3 PBRN)

Interest in implementation research is growing in low-resource contexts, as such a platform to conduct pragmatic studies that would generate reliable evidence to bridge the evidence-practice gap in such settings is critical. The Nigeria Implementation Science Alliance (NISA) was formed in 2015 in collaboration with NIH Fogarty International Center, NISA is a consortium of over 20 national organizations, including academic institutions, PEPFAR-supported local implementing partners, and policymakers.
NISA has three main objectives:

• Build research infrastructure to conduct clinical trials and implementation research.
• Enhance the capacity of a well-educated workforce for research.
• Create a dissemination platform that brings together policymakers, implementing partners, researchers, and program managers.

Twelve secondary health facilities (Innovation Labs) each linked to a tertiary hospital and a community center across the six geopolitical regions of Nigeria form a 36 sites consortium that provide care to a population of >5 million people and constitute ICON-3 Practice Based Research Network (ICON-3 PBRN).

Launched on the 28th of April, 2023, the vision of the ICON-3 PBRN is to mobilise implementation research labs across the country’s six geopolitical zones where credible and high-quality research data would be generated, to inform policy and improve healthcare in the country. The ICON-3 PBRN aims are to (1) contribute cohorts of study participants from the six regions of